Sanford Sharing Garden

Plot Thickens: Sprouts See Vegetables In New Light

SANFORD — Tommy Brown grew up on a farm, and his job scheduling produce-hauling trucks keeps him from straying too far from the family tradition.

Now, the Sanford man whose father and grandfather were farmers is helping his three grandchildren tend their own vegetable garden.

With their grandfather's expertise, Matthew and Mitchell, 7, and Michael Brown, 5, of Sanford, have been planting and harvesting a variety of vegetables for about a year in a community garden behind the State Farmer's Market in Sanford.

Besides learning to appreciate the taste of fresh vegetables, Brown said his grandsons also have learned the responsibility of caring for a garden.

''The boys love it,'' said Brown, 64, of Sanford. ''They plant, weed and harvest the vegetables and they eat everything they grow.''

The Browns are among several urban farmers who rent 20-by-20-foot plots to grow vegetables in the community garden. Their only cost is $20 for water to irrigate their crops.

The first of its kind in Seminole, the community garden land is donated by the Florida Department of Agriculture. The Seminole County Cooperative Extension Service and the Sanford farmers market sponsor the garden program.

So far, 13 of the 20 plots in this year's community garden are being cultivated, urban horticulturist Celeste White said.

One of those plots is used to teach preschoolers to grow their own vegetables, White said. The students in the Parent-Child Co-op Preschool Program at Seminole Community College recently weeded their garden plot and planted corn. They will harvest their crop in several months for a corn boil. Last year, the group planted broccoli and squash. Every other week, the junior farmers return to tend to their chores and observe the growing process.

Last year, White said, 32 plots were harvested by vegetable growers. Each garden saved families a total of about $50 in groceries during the two growing seasons, spring and late summer. ''That's about $1,500 annually in savings and we think that's pretty good,'' she said.

Participants who want to grow vegetables must follow a list of rules that include limiting their work to daylight hours, agreeing on types of pesticides to use, not growing illegal or poisonous plants and leaving the land in the same or better condition at the end of a growing season.

Retired extension agent Bill Llewellyn, who helped start a similar project in Broward County, came up with the idea for the community garden in Seminole several years ago. It took until early last year to get the project under way, White said.

Although the garden is available to anyone, it is geared for people on fixed incomes and to those who cannot afford a lot of groceries.

When Brown was growing up in Georgia during the Depression, he said, many families grew their own vegetables. Now, he said, his grandsons garden for fun and exercise. The fresh vegetables for the family table are a bonus.